Category Archives: Family

Who knew that science could be so much fun? Of course, I did! But a friend of mine told me that in Winterthur, Switzerland, you could touch the science. I mean actually touch it! The land of innovation found a great way to further the research interest und scientific talent of its young generation: they opened a Swiss Science Center Technorama. Here, the children can have a hands-on experience in biology, chemistry, physics; they can participate in various workshops, and watch shows about the earth, gas, and lightning.

Was it sunny today? No, it wasn’t. Was it warm? No, it wasn’t. It was cloudy, windy, and it was snowing by the end of the walk. But the sky and the lake were amazing!
When you have a child, the only reason not to go for a walk is if it’s downpouring. Sure, you can try and get him/her exhausted at home – good luck with that! – but I’d rather let him burn off his energy outside.

All of our trips to America were in connection with conferences that I was attending. The first trip to America was planned in the end of 2010, when I applied to attend two conferences: CUNY in Stanford in March and CNS in San Francisco in April. The conferences were a week apart, which gave us the opportunity to visit a couple of interesting places in California. And we went to Vegas!

January was probably the most important month in my professional life. This is when I defended my PhD thesis. Needless to say, I was extremely stressed out before the exam and became a nervous wreck (as the German say “ein Häufchen Elend”) by the end of it. I had imagined that I’d get the questions that had been raised in the reviews, but they turned out to be something else entirely. Nevertheless, I got a “magna” and I am really happy to open a new page titled Doctor. I am grateful to my supervisors Prof. MD Carsten Eulitz and Prof. Dr. Aditi Lahiri for giving me this opportunity and for their help and support!

Now, that I am officially German, a trip to my motherland requires much more effort than it did before. Since I had to give my Russian citizenship in favor of the German one, I need a visa to go visit my family back in Russia. In fact, all three of us need visas.

We booked the tickets with Pegasus Airlines. The flights to Russia went well. However, we were stranded in Russia because the company failed to provide their flying crews with Russian visas. All flights operated by Pegasus were canceled until January, 14. To crown this all, Pegasus failed to inform us about this state of things. My mother’s friend read this piece of news online (on the Russian news platform) and warned us. The representatives of Pegasus Airlines in Russia ignored our phone calls by not picking up the phone, though I kept on calling them for 12 hours. A Pegasus official on the German hotline suggested we should wait until January, 14 (our visas were due on January, 8) or book the flights with another company. Like that! “If you don’t want to fly on January, 14, it’s no longer our problem.” Thus, we booked the tickets with Austrian, who brought us home safe and sound. A great “thank you!” to Austrian!

I know, it’s not over yet. Though I’ve got quite a lot to tell you and I’m afraid I won’t if don’t do it right away.

#1 The most important one

I did it! I submitted my doctoral thesis! It took me almost 5 years to run those 11 EEG experiments, to write them up, and in the meantime to have a child. This thesis is thus a summary of my recent professional life. It’s a milestone and the end of an era. I am excited and, at the same time, scared like hell to move on.

This thesis was possible only because two wonderful people decided to put their trust in me. Dear Carsten Eulitz and Aditi Lahiri, you are the BEST scientific supervisors and mentors one could wish for! I am grateful for your time and advice. It’s been an honor to work with you! And we still have three papers to publish together 🙂

Happy Easter to all those orthodox christians among us! Христос воскрес!

To those pagans and phantasy-lovers, happy 5th Game of Thrones season! I am celebrating both today after a very relaxing and sunny day here on the lake of Constance. Though the spring seemed to be role-playing Simon’s cat wishing to get into the house (a desperate metaphor for all cat owners), it’s now finally here.

Long before SATC the movie II, we got married twice. Not like Pamela Anderson repeatedly married her husbands, but first, we got married at the city hall and second (two years later), in a church. I was rather a non-bridal bride back in 2008, wearing a black dress, which is why I decided to be a real bride the second time around and wear something gorgeous. We are talking about me, right? So, buying a dress never seemed to be an option. My mother insisted on having it sewn rather than sewing it myself. “It’s an omen,” she said “to sew your own wedding dress.” Well, I thought that I’d already been married for two years and went for creating it myself. And I was right!
After a couple of weeks brooding over the pattern I came upon this Carolina Herrera dress.

The whole crochet dress was a little bit too much for me, but a skirt having similar “scales” felt like a right and pretty extraordinary choice. I tried different patterns and materials and finally chose silk organza (6 meters), satin and organza ribbons (about one kilometer) and pearls (no idea, how many). First, I made several samples of a “scale” using simple stitching, embroidering, ribbon stitching. Then, out of several samples I chose the one that looked best and required the minimum of effort (relatively, of course). Finally, I made a sample of the skirt, cut it into “scales” and calculated the time it would take me to make them. Three months. Well, it took me four months to make them. And it was worth it! My husband loved my outfit and was telling EVERYBODY that I made it myself. I will stop talking about it right now. I’ll just show it.Continue reading My Wedding Dress→

What is the best way to make your time fly? Exactly! To enjoy it!
Our son being three this year, we decided to resort to his help in putting on the “real” Christmas decorations. He was extremely happy to be helpful, so he performed his task with special attention to detail both at home